Tasting Notes
JancisRobinson.com 18.5
Tasted blind. Racy and lively on the nose. Some freshness and great readability. Sweet and not too complex. Easy to like. Complete. Some inkiness but great fruit too. Excellent finish.
Anticipated maturity: 2020-2045
Robert Parker 98
The 2005 Château Mouton-Rothschild is a deeply impressive First Growth. It has been blessed with a sensational nose that comes racing out of the blocks with audacious scents of black fruit, cedar, smoke and pencil box (Philippe Dhalluin mentioned that the signature smokiness/fireside hearth was tangible in around 80% of the vats during élevage). There is a sense of bravura here, of aristocracy. The palate is medium-bodied with sumptuous black fruit, perhaps beginning to soften in texture, one or two years off its plateau. There are layers and layers of black fruit intermingling with graphite and black pepper, and it wisely reins everything in on the finish that is more classic in style and in keeping with the vintage. If you are fortunate enough to have this wine in your cellar, even though those tannins are starting to be abraded by time, afford it another five or six years. Tasted August 2016.
Anticipated maturity: 2020-2050
